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The data, published by NHS England, only gives an outline of the nature of each failure and they are counted in specific categories of error.

At Basildon Hospital, one incident involved surgery being performed on the wrong site or on the wrong patient.

Another included equipment being left inside the patient post-procedure, and a further incident was reported as a patient being connected to an air flowmeter when they actually needed oxygen.

(Image: Health Education England)

The next two incidents at the trust included a patient being given an overdose of insulin in a mix up and medicine being administered by the wrong route.

Looking at East Suffolk and North Essex , there were two cases involving a patient being given a wrong implant or prosthesis.

Whereas the other never events included surgery being performed on the wrong person or part of the body, equipment being left inside the patient after an operation and medicine being administered by the wrong route.

Turning to Essex Partnership University Trust, they had a failure which saw a patient attempting or completing suicide using hospital equipment that should have been made safe.

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Across England as a whole there were 344 never events recorded over the aforementioned period, with the most common type of incident involving completing the wrong surgery on someone, or on the wrong part.

Of those, 33 incidents involved dentists pulling out the wrong teeth.

In December, England's chief inspector of hospitals called for a change in culture within the NHS to reduce the number of patients who experience avoidable harm.

A report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that too many people are being harmed because of a lack of training and the complexity of the current safety system.